Vatican
Is Pope Francis sick, or just taking a summer break?
By Josephine McKenna — June 18, 2014
VATICAN CITY (RNS) The Vatican has announced the pope will give no midweek general audiences in St Peter’s Square during July, and the intimate Mass he celebrates every day inside the chapel at the St. Martha residence will be suspended from July until September.
Globe-trotting Cardinal Theodore McCarrick is almost 84, and working harder than ever
By David Gibson — June 16, 2014
WASHINGTON (RNS) When Pope Francis needs a savvy back channel operator, he often turns to retired Washington Cardinal Theodore McCarrick. “Why don’t you ask McCarrick to go?” the cardinal says of the Vatican’s thinking. “He’s usually willing to do these crazy things.”
Pope Francis: ‘Inside every Christian is a Jew’
By Josephine McKenna — June 13, 2014
VATICAN CITY (RNS) "Every day, I pray with the Psalms of David," Pope Francis said. "My prayer is Jewish, then I have the Eucharist, which is Christian."
Catholic, Orthodox bishops push for more married priests
By David Gibson — June 9, 2014
(RNS) In 1929, the Vatican effectively ended the option of married clergy in Eastern rite Catholic churches in the United States, citing a fear that Roman Catholics would ask for the same policy.
Pope Francis calls for ‘courage’ toward peace between Israel, Palestine
By Josephine McKenna — June 9, 2014
VATICAN CITY (RNS) “Peacemaking calls for courage, much more so than warfare," Pope Francis told the Israeli and Palestinian presidents. "It calls for the courage to say yes to encounter and no to conflict, yes to dialogue and no to violence."
Advisers urge Pope Francis to slow down for a summer break
By David Gibson — June 6, 2014
WASHINGTON (RNS) Last summer, Pope Francis did not take a break and did not decamp to the papal retreat at Castel Gandolfo, a move church officials said was part of his desire to downplay the trappings of the papacy and to save money.
Pope Francis ends Italian control over Vatican’s financial watchdog
By Josephine McKenna — June 5, 2014
VATICAN CITY (RNS) The Vatican said the pope named four experts from Switzerland, Singapore, the United States and Italy to replace the all-Italian board of the Vatican's Financial Information Authority.
Pope Francis ‘deeply moved’ by letters from young U.S. prisoners
By Josephine McKenna — June 3, 2014
VATICAN CITY (RNS) “Their stories ... moved me deeply," Pope Francis said after 500 inmates facing life in prison without parole sent letters to the Vatican.
Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew may join Vatican prayer summit
By Josephine McKenna — June 3, 2014
VATICAN CITY (RNS) A formal announcement may be made Wednesday (June 4).
Clergy abuse victims are divided over Pope Francis’ offer to meet
By David Gibson — May 28, 2014
(RNS) Some victims of clergy sex abuse say Pope Francis' first-ever encounter with victims is simply stagecraft aimed at distracting the public from what they say are the pope’s larger failures to address the abuse crisis.
No date set for historic Vatican meeting of Israeli, Palestinian presidents
By Josephine McKenna — May 26, 2014
ROME (RNS) While some media reports have the leaders meeting as early as June 6, the Vatican’s chief spokesman said Monday (May 26) that a “precise date” had not been set.
Vatican media chief says the church can’t ignore social media
By David Gibson — May 23, 2014
NEW YORK (RNS) “In our church we are always fishing inside the aquarium,” Archbishop Claudio Celli, head of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, said. “And we forget that most fish are outside the aquarium.”
UN criticizes Vatican on sexual abuse but stops short of calling it torture
By Josephine McKenna — May 23, 2014
ROME (RNS) The panel’s criticism was far more muted than a scathing February report from the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child that asserted that the Vatican had fostered “impunity” for abusers.
U.S. nuns haunted by dead Jesuit: the ghost of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
By David Gibson — May 22, 2014
(RNS) A French Jesuit's ideas of "conscious evolution" may be at the heart of the showdown between American nuns and Vatican hard-liners.
Former Vatican No. 2 Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone denies financial wrongdoing
By Josephine McKenna — May 21, 2014
VATICAN CITY (RNS) The Vatican's chief spokesman says there's no criminal investigation targeting former Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone, but that doesn't mean an oversight panel isn't conducting its own examination.
